Float-valve.



A. H. ANTHONY.

I no VALVE. APPLICATION FILED MAY 26. I9!!- Patented Dec. 10, 1918.

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FLOAT-VALVE.

,Appl ication filed May 25, 1917. Serial No.17 1,1 96. :1 Y

[ all whom it may concern: I

Be it known that I, ALFRED HYMAN' ANTHONY, a subject of the King of En gland, and a resident of Colchester, Essex, England, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Float-Valves, of

' which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to boiler-feed float apparatus of the kind in which a float buoyed up by water and exposed to the steam at boiler pressure in a vessel,,1s arranged to operate or" control some device automatically by variation ofthe'level of the liquid in the vessel, which said device determines the feed to the boiler. 7

Difficulty has arisen heretofore, when apparatus of this type is exposed to thehigh temperature andpressure of a steam boiler, owing to such floats becoming sooner or later water-logged. The consequent loss of buoyancy destroys the adjustment upon which their proper functioning depends, whether the water-logging be complete or p e p The object of the presentinvention is to avoid the trouble arising from water-logging-by employing, in the type of apparatus referred to, anopen float, that is to say, a

bucket-like or open-mouthed float. An open float is not broadly new, particularly in s m p but the 'pres ntinvention is limited to the use of an open float for boiler feed apparatus in which the floatis only P ly," e er mpletely, ub e ge an needs to respond to such smalll changes of level as are perm ssible in best marine practicefor example, a change of, say, halfan inch.

According to the present invention, in float apparatus ofthe kind defined, an open and partly balanced unsubmerged float is combined with; means to "condense .some,

steam from the boiler and automatically de-,

liver it as water continuously, or with regularity into the open and unsubmerged mouth This invention provides, moreover, a. construction of the said open-mouthed float. in which the mouth is made wide; the object in providing this widemouth isto enable the float, when employed to control the feed of a marine boiler, to spill some of its liquid contents when the ship is rolling heavily.

By this means the float becomes more buoyant and cuts off thefeed supply when the 'water level is lower than would be the case remains horizontal.

The level of waterin-the boiler thus, when the ship is in a heavy sea-way, is automatically kept slightly lower than it is when the ship is steady.

' Where the result just above described, as obtained by spilling part of the liquid content or the float, is undesired, this invention provides a container with a trunk for the purpose of keeping the container full of Specification of Letters Patent. Y Patented 10, 1918.

' if the float were fully charged With liquid.

liquid andconfining variationsof the level of the liquid itself. m 7

In-the accompanying drawings- Figure l is a vertical central section in the container to the trunk through a vessel fitted with a float-device according to this invention for controlling the supply of'feed-water toIa boiler, and

Fig. 2' is a similar view of an alternative construction. I i

. A vessel'A in g is p i to constitute the float-chamber and contains a float B suspended upon a lever C pivoted at C The float consists f an open bucket with parallel "sides secured to one end'of the. lever C by an adjusting screw D by which its distance from the lever may be adjusted and finally fined. At the other end of the lever is a balance weight E, and.

an arm F connects the lever to a valve which serves to control the feed to the boiler,"the

connections being suchthat when the float end ofthe lever is depressed feed water is rises the feed is cut ofl".

admitted to the boiler and when that end The bucket B is :pivotally suspended from I the arm C so that its mouth'automatically Above the bucket is 'a condenser G secured in thereof ofthe chamber'A, the condenser being in the form of a domed vessel, whose inouth G is downwardly directed and communicates with theinterion of the chamber A. The condenser is provided with radiating gills so as to. be sufiioiently air-cooled to condense steam which passes into it., The mouth G of the condenser is so placed that the condensed steam drips from the condenser into thebucket. The bucket, the proportions of the pivoted lever, and the counter-balance, are

so chosen that the buoketwhen full of water is balanced by its counter-weight when it is about half immersed. It is normally kept run by thedrip of condensed 'steamrfrom thecondenser, but in aheavy sea-way the v bucket will spill some of its liquid content.

and will therefore be balanced by the counter-Weight when it is less immersed than normally, and Willthus keep'the level of water in the boiler slightly'lower than ordinarily. The counter-weight is preferably not immersed.

'Where the above-described action in which the bucket spillssomeofits Water in a heavy sea-way, is notde si red the construction shown in Fig. 2 may be adopted. In this construction the bucket or container B, which constitutes the float, is covered in I with a water-tight cover B provided, however, with a trunk B rising vertically from it. The trunk B is of small diameter compared with the diameter ofthe bucket and is provided Witha flared mouth B having the upper edge of its wall sloping, that is to say inclined, to a horizontal line. The

the condensation Within the pipe drips into the float. Instead of an air-cooled, a water 35 cooled condenser may be employed and the cooling may convenientlybeeffected, when the feed is controlled in the well-known manner by a device which depends upon the leakage of water past a balancing piston, byusing this leakage Water as the cooling water forthe float condenser. i

Obviously, the open-bucket type will serve for'land purposes, and since it is cheaper than the type that is closed and provided with a trunk, the open type is to. be preferred for land work. Y

' WVhat'I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is;,., v

1. In afloat-valve for boilerffeed appa-V 'Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents ,ratuslin which the isexposed to steam for a downwardly directed mouth opening into the float-containing chamber at a point over the mouth of the float, substantially as set forth. I p

3. In a float-valve for boiler feed apparatus in which the float is exposed to steam at boiler pressure, the combination with a cylindrical bucket constituting thefloat so mountedand partly balanced as to be always partly immersed but never completely submerged, of means to continuously condense steam from the boiler and deliver the Water of condensation into the said open float, substantially as set forth.

4. A boiler feed device comprising a chamher, a connection between the water space of the boiler and said chamber, a second "connection between the chamber and the steam space of the boiler, a pivotal'fioat member mounted in the chamber partially balanced so as to always be partly immersed but never completely submerged, and .a steam condenser connected to said chamber above the open mouth of the float,,the mouth of the condenser being immediately above the mouth of'the float to deliverjthe water .Of condensation from the condenser to the float; substantially as described.

In testimony WhereofI have signed my namee to this'specification in the presence, of

two subscribing witnesses.

. ALFRED HYMAN ANTHONY.

/ Witnesses: V a S. T.Ronenns, v a

, g j HAROLD I-I. SIMMONS. 7

each, by addresiiinfi f Commissioner of Patents 

